Keeping people safe behind decision to join Air Training Corps
Published on 23 April 2026
We could be back in the early 1900s. The old Ōamaru Volunteers Hall looks like an armed forces base. Members of the Ōamaru 26 Squadron Air Training Corps (ATC) line up in formal precision in pristine uniforms.
They move perfectly as if in a choreographed dance as they respond to orders barked out by officers and high-ranking cadets.
Sixteen-year-old Leading Air Cadet Bonnie Davidson is one of these cadets. She is passionate about being a part of the ATC and just as enthusiastic about the armed forces as a whole. She wants to do her part in any upcoming war.
“I have a feeling we are going to have a World War III, and I feel very compelled to join up.”
It’s hard for her to put into words why she feels that way btu adds, “I don’t know, I just have that feeling that there’s so many people of my generation who are, not to be rude, too soft and feel like they are safe because they live in New Zealand. But no-one is safe.”
She feels very strongly about doing her bit. She’s been raised hearing and reading stories about what soldiers went through in the world wars and what they came home like. “They’ve done so much (for the people of New Zealand), I aspire to be like that.”
“I feel it’s my duty … I just want to experience it for myself. I want to see what they went through. It’s about having the ‘want’ to give that back.”
Bonnie’s eventual dream is to become a bomb technician in the New Zealand Army, but if that doesn’t pan out, she’ll be happy to just be in the army.
She is also a huge supporter of the Air Training Corps - the confidence it helps grow, the discipline the teens learn, the challenges, the team building and camaraderie, and the leadership; it all feeds into her army dreams.
On Anzac Day she and the other cadets will be marching in the parade, and some will also be cenotaph guards and perform a rifle drill. For Bonnie, it’s an important time of year and is about gratitude.
“I’ve been into the whole army thing from a really young age and my grandmother’s father fought in the war (WWI) and I think it’s really special that we get to celebrate those people, especially since I’ve heard stories from my grandmother.
“More people should be involved with it (Anzac Day) and more people should be showing up and actually noticing the fact that people died for us to be here and have what we have today.”
When asked how relevant she thinks it is for the younger generation, she said she believes that if we don’t make a massive effort to keep ANZAC memories alive, people will start forgetting that these events happened.
“And will take away the fact of us being kinder to each other and actually ‘love thy neighbour’ kind of thing.
“So, I think it’s very important that we do remember, especially since that after the (world) wars, a lot of the soldiers had to live with the PTSD from that and all the traumas.
“I think if we just kind of remember that and have that gratitude.”